With the economic globalization and the continuous development of information technology, international logistics has become an important way and necessary means of international business trade. As a big import and export country in the world, it is necessary to study international logistics. By describing the basic concept of international logistics and the present situation of international logistics in China, this paper analyzes the future development trend of international logistics in China. The so-called international logistics is an extension and further expansion of domestic logistics, a "circulation of goods" that crosses national boundaries and expands the scope of circulation, and an international trade activity that realizes the physical movement of goods between two or more countries (or regions). In essence, international logistics is based on the principle of international division of labor and cooperation. According to international practice, international logistics network, logistics facilities and logistics technology are used to realize the international flow and exchange of goods, thus promoting the development of regional economy and the optimal allocation of world resources. With the rapid development of modern science and technology and the increasing trend of economic globalization, modern international logistics, as an advanced organizational form and management concept to realize international trade, has been widely regarded as a way to reduce material consumption and improve the third-party profit source besides labor productivity. Especially after China's entry into WTO, China is facing a huge international market. How to make full use of China's existing resources and determine the development strategy and direction of international logistics puts forward higher requirements for the quality, efficiency, safety and economy of China's international logistics. I. Status of International Logistics in China 1. Basic situation of international logistics in China The development environment of international logistics industry has improved. Governments at all levels make overall plans. The State Economic and Trade Commission, the State Planning Commission, the Ministry of Communications, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation and other relevant central departments pay attention to the development of China's logistics industry from different angles, actively study and formulate relevant policies, and make overall plans. With the active operation of the Federation of Logistics and Purchasing and the strong support and promotion of the National Standardization Committee, the National Logistics Technical Standards Committee and the National Logistics Information Standards Committee, as well as their secretariats in the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing and China Coding Center, have begun to establish a unified national logistics standards system. At the same time, under the leadership of the Ministry of Science and Technology, they have completed a major research on the subject of logistics standardization, which is a major breakthrough in China's logistics standardization construction and is conducive to the integration with the international advanced development level. The demand for international logistics is growing rapidly. The experience of logistics development at home and abroad shows that the level of logistics development is directly proportional to a country's economic aggregate and economic development level. Since 1990s, China's GDP has increased rapidly every year, and its economy has developed rapidly. At the same time, logistics is also in a period of rapid growth. According to statistics, from 199 1 to 2009, the total logistics value of the whole society grew at an average annual rate of more than 20%, much higher than the average GDP growth rate in the same period, and the added value of logistics increased at an average annual rate of 165438+. The total value of social logistics is the total value of all goods delivered to the end users through logistics services in a certain period, reflecting the total demand and supply of logistics services, while the added value of logistics is the achievement of logistics services expressed in money in a certain period, reflecting the demand level of logistics. As can be seen from the statistical data, the growth of the total value of social logistics and the added value of logistics constitutes a strong logistics demand market. Logistics infrastructure has taken shape. Since the reform and opening up, the state has invested heavily in logistics infrastructure, which has developed greatly and begun to take shape. According to the statistics of China Logistics Information Center, from 199 1 up to now, China's fixed assets investment, railway mileage, highway mileage, inland waterway, civil aviation line, oil (gas) pipeline mileage, the number of civilian trucks and the number of railway trucks have all developed and improved rapidly. In addition, China's strong logistics carrying capacity has become the main force of China's outbound transportation, and it has launched freight services for third countries. The volume of international container shipping, which represents the development scale of international logistics in China, has increased rapidly at an average double-digit rate in recent years. As a rapidly rising trading power, it is predicted that by 20 10, the annual container throughput of China's ports will reach1400,000 TEU, and an international container multimodal transport network centered on major coastal ports will take shape. After years of development, China has laid the necessary material foundation for the development of international logistics in terms of logistics infrastructure and equipment. 2. Problems in the development of international logistics in China (1) The level of logistics infrastructure needs to be improved. Although China's logistics infrastructure and equipment conditions have been greatly developed and improved, compared with the development requirements of China's economy and logistics industry, there is still a big gap compared with developed countries, which affects the improvement of China's logistics efficiency to a certain extent and is not conducive to the rapid and healthy development of the logistics industry. Mainly manifested in: First, the transportation industry has developed slowly and has become a logistics industry. At present, the main problems in China's transportation industry are the uncoordinated growth of vehicles and transportation lines, serious road traffic congestion and poor urban traffic, which seriously affect the transportation efficiency of the national transportation network. As the main force of transportation, the reform progress is slow. Second, the storage facilities are backward. A large number of warehouses are old buildings from 1950s to 1960s. There are many problems such as fire prevention, moisture prevention and theft prevention, and it is also difficult to store modern goods by high-tech means. Thirdly, the lack of logistics infrastructure construction, especially the low degree of modernization of logistics system, makes it difficult to connect logistics systems between different regions in China and between domestic and international. As a result, the logistics distribution is scattered and disorderly, the logistics circulation path increases and there are too many circulation links. This unreasonable spatial layout directly affects the ability of China's logistics industry to participate in global competition after its entry into WTO, and then poses a severe challenge to the survival and development of China's logistics industry. (2) The most important sign of the application of information technology in the field of logistics is the logistics supply chain management software which is developed and designed for the needs of logistics activities and supported by a large number of information technologies. At present, supply chain management is the most widely used logistics supply chain system for enterprises in the world. Some enterprises only need warehousing or have limited demand for logistics, so they will choose to use the logistics management part of VMI and ERP. SCM, VMI, ERP and other logistics management software are implemented in less than one tenth of international logistics enterprises, among which the application of manufacturing enterprises is slightly better than that of circulation enterprises. (3) Lack of international logistics professionals With the improvement of information technology and management level, the competition of modern international logistics industry has changed from low-end price competition to high-end logistics and information flow competition. Therefore, the market urgently needs a large number of modern logistics talents, mainly concentrated in the fields of enterprise planning consultation, scientific research and teaching institutions and so on. From the demand level, there are mainly logistics operators, actual logistics managers and senior logistics management talents. At present, international logistics education lags behind the development of international logistics industry, which leads to a serious shortage of modern international logistics talents. At present, the most scarce talents in the international logistics industry are senior logistics management talents. At present, international logistics enterprises need senior logistics management talents, not only those who can manage warehouses or know a certain mode of transportation, but also those who have a comprehensive knowledge of logistics operation management, can be competent for multiple positions at the same time, can comprehensively control, optimize and upgrade the operations carried out, and can grow rapidly with the development of enterprises. However, at present, there is no reasonable education and training mechanism to cultivate senior logistics management talents that meet the needs of modern international logistics. (4) The international logistics operation law is not perfect. In China, international logistics started late, lacking special international logistics laws and regulations and norms to promote its development. The existing laws and regulations related to logistics are mostly departmental and regional regulations, which often have the color of regional or departmental protection, such as the Railway Freight Transport Law and the Road Freight Transport Law. There are basically no unified laws and regulations to follow in the entry, exit and competition rules of logistics market. The imperfection of international logistics laws and regulations limits the development speed of China's logistics internationalization. Second, the development trend of international logistics in China 1, and the intensive and coordinated development of logistics enterprises. With the full start of the logistics market, the logistics industry will gradually transition from the initial stage to the development stage and even the mature stage, and the standardization, standardization and comprehensive marketization of logistics service products will inevitably eliminate uneven logistics enterprises. The formation of logistics service standards and the gradual establishment of logistics market competition pattern will make the scale effect of logistics industry appear rapidly, the spatial scope of logistics industry will be further expanded, and logistics enterprises will develop intensively and cooperatively. First of all, it is manifested in the merger and cooperation of logistics enterprises. Entering the 2 1 century, the combination and merger of enterprises in various industries around the world will continue to accelerate the development of international logistics industry in the direction of globalization, and the development trend of logistics globalization will inevitably promote and promote the combination and merger activities of logistics enterprises in various countries. Secondly, logistics enterprises form strategic alliances. Due to the complexity of business operation, it is often difficult for a single logistics service provider to achieve low-cost and high-quality services, nor can it bring high satisfaction to customers. Solving the shortage of funds through alliance, coping with the pressure of market fluctuation, increasing the variety of services, expanding the geographical coverage of enterprises, providing customers with "one-stop" services and obtaining them from joint marketing and sales activities are becoming the development strategies of many logistics enterprises with certain strength. 2. Quality and globalization of logistics services Facing the more intense market competition and rapidly changing market demand in the 2 1 century, it will be the key to the survival and development of modern logistics enterprises to provide customers with increasingly perfect value-added services and meet their increasingly complex personalized needs. The service scope of logistics enterprises will not only be limited to one or a series of decentralized outsourcing logistics functions, but also pay more attention to the overall operation efficiency and benefit of customer logistics systems. With the establishment of contract-oriented personalized service system, the service standard of logistics market will gradually move towards standardization. In the initial stage of productization of logistics services, many logistics products are often very different, and the market has not yet formed a recognized industry service standard. To some extent, this hinders the optimization of logistics products and the decline of service costs, and intensifies the competition of substitutes. With the establishment and popularization of the concept of contractual customer service, as well as the continuous development of productization and marketization of logistics services, the service standards in the logistics market will gradually move towards standardization. The globalization of logistics service is another important trend in the future. At present, many large manufacturing departments are developing in the direction of "expanding enterprises". This so-called "extended enterprise" basically includes all service providers in the unified global supply chain, and uses the latest computer system to control them. At the same time, the manufacturing industry has been accelerating the globalization of its activities by implementing the "customized" service theory, which has put forward the demand of "one vote to the end" for the global supply chain service industry. This kind of service requires an extremely flexible supply chain, which also forces logistics service providers to adopt a "all for customers" solution. 3. Customer logistics value-added services Today's logistics services have surpassed the traditional delivery, storage or custody of goods. In fact, the logistics company has participated in the whole process of the product since the customer received the order. Whether by sea, air or land, in fact, almost all companies related to logistics and transportation are trying their best to provide value-added services. Global transportation companies and express delivery companies choose to provide customers with one-stop service. Their services cover the whole process of products from purchasing to manufacturing, warehousing, packaging, distribution, sending and managing returns, maintenance and recycling. For example, shipping companies, a traditional logistics enterprise, are now not only responsible for transporting goods, but also providing services such as making commercial invoices, buying insurance for goods, and managing the whole process. In fact, it tries to provide complete supply chain management so that customers can track the location, accurate progress and actual cost of their goods at the first time. 4. The development trend of the fourth party logistics (4PL) The globalization trend and the expanding service scope make the concept of logistics transportation chain completely different from before, the process becomes more and more complicated, and the requirements of customers become more and more strict. Under the 4PL mode, the external logistics integrator or comprehensive service organization will undertake the task of consulting, consulting, planning, controlling and maintaining the program chain in the best state. This is like adding an efficient service membrane between customers and traditional logistics enterprises. Theoretically, 4PL providers are completely neutral. As a service company providing long-term strategic consultation, its task is to provide an information platform for exchanging data, select partners, provide customers with more transparent procedures, cut costs and provide complete management services. At present, most of the fourth-party logistics comes from 3PL service companies, information technology providers and consulting companies, and some of them are "combinations" of various companies, such as operating companies and information technology participants in a supply chain, or joint management of a series of subsidiaries under the same big company for a specific project. Undeniably, the complex factors in the logistics field, from consulting to technology and operation, and how to reduce the problems and troubles in the value-added service chain to zero, make it difficult for a company to complete the actual operation independently. The challenge for 4PL companies and logistics experts is how to coordinate the interests of companies that originally provided services for different industries and trades. In any case, 4PL will not only provide an Internet platform.